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People who enter Judge Romonda Belcher’s courtroom often made poor choices that brought them before her.

Belcher, a Polk County juvenile court judge, sees youngsters whose behavior at school or elsewhere landed them in trouble with police. She sees parents with drug and alcohol abuse problems; those who suffer from domestic violence; and others who cannot find jobs.

But regardless of their backgrounds, people need to feel that judges lend an open ear, said Belcher, 45, one of The Des Moines Register’s 14 people to watch in 2014.

“I think it is very important for me that when a person leaves my courtroom … they’ve had an opportunity to be heard, they feel like they were treated fairly, they feel like they were treated with respect and they were treated with compassion,” said Belcher, a member of a special statewide committee working to reduce the over-representation of minority youths in juvenile courts and detention facilities.

Belcher, a 1995 graduate of the Drake University Law School, made Iowa history in 2010 when she was appointed to the Polk County District Court bench, becoming the state’s first black female judge. She previously had worked for 15 years in the Polk County attorney’s office.

In July, Belcher finished her first year of a three-year commitment to serve as a juvenile court judge. She’s hopeful that her work with the statewide committee will leave a lasting impact on Iowa’s justice system.

Group’s proposals

due in September

The over-representation of minority youth in the criminal justice system is a problem most visible in Iowa’s bigger cities.

Between 2008 and 2012, the number of black youths detained for offenses in Polk County grew by 66.3 percent, according to a May report from the Iowa Department of Human Rights.

The number of Hispanics detained in Polk County during the same time grew 59.3 percent. The percentage of white youths detained grew as well, but at a lower rate of 29 percent.

Other statistics, such as the number of petitions filed in juvenile court, show similarly disconcerting patterns.

Black and Hispanic children and teenagers end up in courtrooms such as Belcher’s in percentages that have grown more than those of their white peers.

In October, the state court administrator’s office and the Iowa Department of Human Rights received a $100,000 grant to build a strategic plan to combat the over-representation.

A committee was formed of judges and other experts willing to step up, said David Kuker, an executive officer with the Department of Human Rights.

“Judge Belcher’s name came up immediately,” he said. “Having a judge like Judge Belcher stepping forward is a big deal, and it’s a good way for us to look at how we can step forward in other metro areas.”

By September 2014, the committee is expected to make public recommendations, some that could be legislative, to curb the problem.

Belcher hopes part of the work will focus on tweaking a tool currently used in Polk, Black Hawk and Woodbury counties that looks at a variety of factors to help law enforcement officials decide whether to put a youth into detention after he or she has been picked up by police.

A top concern is making sure that any tool that looks at a child’s history doesn’t already include bias, she said.

“If you’re looking at anything that happened in the past, again, you’re looking at that disproportionate information,” she said. “It’s an attempt … to try to make it fair across the board for all the young people.”

Even with work over the course of the year, there’s no measure that will completely solve the problem in Iowa or nationwide, Kuker said. In 30 years, he said, Belcher will no doubt still be “banging away” to help find solutions.

Mentoring part of Belcher’s calling

Janica Munford began her first year at Drake Law School in August 2008 with undergraduate degrees in criminology and biology.

She took classes like constitutional law, civil procedure and property law, the classes the law school requires of its first-year students.

The classes force students to start thinking like attorneys. The amount of reading and rules of procedure to be memorized overwhelmed Munford.

“There’s a constant bombardment of information,” said Munford, now 31 and a contract attorney who works on medical malpractice and civil lawsuits in Virginia. “It’s almost like a sensory overload.”

Munford never lived outside Florida before coming to Des Moines for law school. In Belcher, Munford found a mentor who offered professional and practical advice. Often, the advice came over dinner.

Munford met Belcher, then still working in the county attorney’s office, during her first semester at a Black Law Students Association meeting. Belcher led the Drake chapter as president in 1994 when she attended the law school.

Belcher regularly meets students through the group, Munford and others said. When Belcher gives students her business card, she genuinely opens doors for them.

“She made herself available,” Munford said. “She made it a point to kind of reach out and let me know if I ever needed anything, she would be there.”

“You could call Romonda and say, ‘Hey … you know, I’m having a rough semester,’ or ‘I’m having an issue with this class,’ ” Munford said. “Whatever it was, whether it was personal or academic, she’d say, ‘Well, let’s have dinner.’ ”

Belcher works hard to reach out to the African-American women who attend Drake Law School. The mentoring ensures that the women have a professional relationship with somebody from a similar background and understanding, Belcher said.

“I think it’s important that they have someone that they can relate to that has a shared experience,” she said. “When I was in law school, they paired me with an older, white male lawyer, and while I appreciate that white male lawyer, he cannot relate to me as a black female.”

A North Carolina native, Belcher is also well-aware of the challenges that students from other states face in adjusting to being in a new place.

Some of Belcher’s advice proves more practical — the stuff of common knowledge for any native Iowan, Munford said. Students unfamiliar with Iowa’s winter weather got lessons in dressing warm, buying winter tires and driving more slowly when snow falls.

Sh’Myra Moore, 30, remembers Belcher’s generosity in introducing her to other Des Moines attorneys. Moore, now an attorney in a North Carolina firm, met Belcher in 2006, Moore’s first semester at Drake.

For Moore, seeing Belcher’s work in the community motivated the aspiring attorney. Moore hopes other young women will want to become a part of the same tradition.

“I’m from a small community. … There are very few female attorneys, period, let alone African-Americans,” she said. “It’s something that definitely inspires me to continue to do what I do in the legal field. Hopefully, young girls will see me.”

Strives for fairness in the courtroom

In only a few years on the bench, Belcher has shown skill as a judge, some of Iowa’s top legal professionals say.

Belcher’s goal of making her courtroom a level platform for all parties — including juvenile delinquents and their parents — led her to adopt a simple yet innovative practice of rearranging her courtroom to ensure proceedings appear as fair as possible, said Jerry Foxhoven, director of the Drake Legal Clinic.

Belcher situates all the parties involved in a juvenile hearing in a way that makes the process seem more fair. She was concerned about the appearance that prosecuting attorneys and court-appointed guardians appeared to be working together, just because of their placement next to each other at the table, she said.

Clients of the Drake clinic often appear before Belcher, Foxhoven said.

“She strives to be fair, but she keeps her eyes and ears open and notices things,” he said. “When the appearance of it is that it isn’t fair, then the system breaks down.”

Cady first met Belcher when she worked in the county attorney’s office and believes there are few people as well-suited as she is to hear cases involving children.

“She’s dealing with kids that haven’t had a lot of positive experiences in their lives,” he said. “Her presence and her approach and the kindness that she displays is very needed by those kids.”

Belcher’s career aspirations could take her beyond the Polk County District Court. Twice, she applied for positions on the Iowa Supreme Court or Iowa Court of Appeals before being appointed to the district court, and she continues to set her sights on an appointment to a higher court, she said.

“From a young age I decided I wanted to make a difference,” she said. “I felt like judges were in a position to make a difference.”

14 people to watch in 2014

These are central Iowans in business, arts, nonprofits, civic activism and nonelected government positions who are expected to make a difference in their fields of endeavor in 2014. Readers were invited to submit nominations. Selections were made by Des Moines Register editors and reporters.